Pushing Back the Borders
by blinkblink
Summary: Seperated from his friends in a fight, Tomoki is left alone until Kouji happens onto him. Shocked out of antisocial-ness, Kouji must help the boy find his friends, while protecting both of them from the danger that looms. Chapter 5, final chapter, is up!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon Frontier, or any of the characters. Please don't sue me.  
  
AN: Although far from my first fic, this is my first Digimon fic, despite the fact that I've been running a Digimon site (TDT, http://athena_crikey.tripod.com/webpage.html) for nigh on three years. Where have I been? I don't know, but this is the first story line I've had that was big enough to actually make a fic out of. I've seen two episodes of Frontier in English, and two in Japanese. Do I know what I'm doing? Not really. Japanese names stick, because I like them better.   
  
Things in _underscores_ represent italics, since ff.net doesn't like my .htm files, and I really need italics sometimes. If you would like to read a version with italics, check out my fanfiction site Rakuen (http://ctech.ca/Athena_Crikey/ff/)   
  
Fixed the spelling mistake of Tomoki. I have no idea where my brain was yesterday... ---------------------------------------------------------  
  
Takuya found, wandering about in the Digital World, that walking could get old _really_ fast if one was stuck walking continuously. As he, Izumi, Junpei and Tomoki were, having let the train digimon that had brought them to the Digital World get away shortly after arriving there. And since they had been unable to persuade another to take them as passengers, they were stuck walking about, a little unsure of what they were trying to do.  
  
Oh, it was ever so simple according to the disembodied voice floating out of their digivices, and Bokomon. Destroy evil, return the code, save the Digital World. No one mentioned anything about walking through vast deserts, overly-humid rainforests and almost subzero expanses. Those were just technicalities. In their journey they had discovered some Spirits which, when needed, allowed the children to evolve into Digimon. Exhausting as that was, when they banded together they could usually defeat the enemy at one go. But the digital forms disappeared as soon as the fight was over, leaving the kids to walk once more to their next destination.   
  
And then there was that boy. Minamoto Kouji. He was human, he had a Spirit (and thus a digimon form), as well as an ego about the size of the Digital World. Takuya balled his fists, just thinking about him was aggravating. Why was it that every time that annoying, bandana wearing kid showed up he made the rest of them look like fools? He was cool without even _trying_, and boy was it irritating. Add that to his antisocial-ness, and rudeness, and you got a major pain which made Takuya cringe whenever he (Kouji) showed his face. Sure, he saved their lives, but then he rubbed their faces in the mud while he was doing it, and after he was done. What a jerk.  
  
Currently the group was making their way through a sparsely populated part of the digital world, a long plain with a tree spurting up occasionally for added colour. It was surrounded on all sides by forest, the trees at either side closer than the trees before and behind them. The weeds, or perhaps crops, that grew on the huge field that the children were walking through came up just higher than their wastes, making them a large problem for Tomoki who was easily the shortest of the group and who kept having to bat the tickling ends of the plants away from his neck and chin. Every here and there an old decrepit part of wooden fencing could be seen over the grass, implying that the field had at one point belonged to someone. But now it was completely out of control, and the kids (and Bokomon and Neemon) had no qualms about walking through it. Until they were attacked by a herd of Redveggiemon, anyway.  
  
The red-yellow digimon had appeared out of the tall grass, immediately swinging at the four kids with their long, extendable vines. Which probably would not have been that much of a problem had they not had large pummeling sort of implements growing on the end, much like the ball of a mace, except more elongated. The first attacks missed the kids by millimeters, the second caught Tomoki in the stomach, dropping him, and Takuya on the arm, leaving behind a fairly deep gash. When the shock passed, both Izumi and Junpei Spirit Evolved and led the Redveggiemon away, followed by Takuya (who had launched himself, unevolved, onto one and was whacking it for all he was worth), Bokomon and Neemon (who were running, arguing and pulling at pants elastics at the same time). Tomoki lay, forgotten and unconscious, in the long grass.   
  
Fifteen minutes later it was all over, the last of the Redveggiemon had been digitized, and Izumi and Junpei had de-digivolved. Takuya had, for his trouble, come out with a few more scrapes and bruises, but nothing serious. It was then that they noticed Tomoki's absence, and the fact that the chase through the field had left no trail, leaving them with no idea which way they had come, no idea where Tomoki could be, and a setting sun. Takuya decided that perhaps Tomoki had run for the forests to get out of the open, and the group headed to the left, towards the forests of great pine trees in the failing light.  
  
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Minamoto Kouji made his was through the great plain of ... grass, hands in pockets and eyes on his path. If he didn't keep an eye on where he was going, he might very well end up going in circles, or heading backwards instead of forwards. Dusk was setting it, and he was now casting about for a place in which to sleep, somewhere that would offer both comfort and protection. A while ago there had been some sort of disturbance up ahead, but it had ended quickly, and he had not gone to see what had happened. It did not affect him, it was not his fight, but it worried him slightly. The sounds had come from Digimon, which meant that there were potential dangers on the field. The openness disturbed him.   
  
The sun had almost dropped completely, and he had still to find a place to sleep. He had almost decided just to drop and sleep where he fell, when he did in fact drop, but as a result of tripping over something. Something soft. Something that gave a cry when trodden upon. Kouji rolled over with alacrity, his digivice in hand and ready incase it was needed. And with the light from its screen, and the fading light of the sun, Kouji recognized the person upon whom he had tripped. The little kid who he had saved from the Raremon. Tomoki.   
  
Almost as if in reaction to Kouji's realization the smaller boy burst into tears and curled up in a ball, the sobs wracking his body. Kouji stared at him awkwardly, finally moving forwards and patting him on the shoulder.  
  
"I'm sorry for tripping on you. I did not see you." He rose to go, but was surprised to find the boy's hand grasping his. He looked down to find Tomoki staring at him with wide, teary eyes.   
  
"Please, you can't go! I'm lost! And my stomach hurts! And the others ran off without me. I'm such a crybaby." This last sentence was barely above a whisper, and obviously not meant to be heard. Kouji said nothing, but after a minute sat down heavily in the grass.  
  
"What do you mean, they ran off without you?"   
  
"A bunch of Redveggiemon attacked us. One of them hit me in the stomach, and, and I don't remember anything else, except now I'm alone." Tomoki sniffed loudly and wiped his eyes. "But now you're here, so everything will be okay!" He smiled, shifting emotions surprisingly quickly. Kouji stared at him. He rarely shifted emotions in a day, never mind in a second.   
  
"I guess. When it gets light I'm sure your friends will come and find you. It's too open to miss them. You may stay here with me tonight, if you do not bother me." He crossed his arms and lay down, staring up at the stars through the long stalks of grass. Tomoki curled up again and wend to sleep.  
  
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In the morning, Kouji woke to find the small boy had wormed his way over against his (Kouji's) side, stealing the warmth he found there. Kouji stiffened automatically, but after a few minutes relaxed. The kid was asleep, he did not know his contact was unwanted, and he appeared to be cold. Shrugging off his jacket, the taller boy dropped it over Tomoki before standing and looking around him. The field was completely empty. No sign of the other kids with whom he affiliated Tomoki. They must have gone into the forest. Chased? Or looking for Tomoki? Or... had they abandoned the smaller, more troublesome child? The last option seemed extremely unlikely. Whatever else he might be, the leader boy, Takuya, did not seem one to abandon his friends.  
  
Loath to stray far from the sleeping boy incase it caused them to be separated as he had been from his friends, Kouji circled Tomoki, peering into the forest in all directions. He saw no movement other than that of branches shifting in the wind. Then he was alone with the kid ... Tomoki, until they returned from wherever they had gone. He could not leave the smaller child out alone in the wilderness. But no more could he stay here and invite an attack by those who had attacked the other kids. He had no proof that they had been destroyed, so it was prudent to assume still that they were a threat. The wind whispered through the grass, and Kouji realized just how easy it would be for a shorter digimon, or a crawling one, to sneak up on them here in the field. He returned to Tomoki and shook him until he woke.  
  
"Wake up, we have to leave. This field isn't safe, it's too open. We'll have to go find your friends, rather than wait here. Where do you think they went?" According to every book Kouji had ever read, and every TV program he had ever watched, the thing to do when lost was to stay where you were and wait for whomever got away to find you. But that wasn't an option in this case. Still, with the Digital World so big, it was quite possible that the two groups would never find each other. And then Kouji would be stuck looking after Tomoki forever. The kid wasn't that bad, Kouji just would have rather been alone. But since he refused to leave Tomoki out in the wild, it meant they were stuck together. For a while, at least.   
  
"I have no idea. But whichever way you pick, I'll follow you. You're strong!" Tomoki smiled reassuringly. Kouji hid a smile behind a stern front, before wheeling around to stare at the forest surrounding the field. Each way was as good as another. And since he was right-handed...  
  
"We go right."  
  
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Well, there's the prologue. Kind of short, but then, that's what prologues are for. Thank you to any of you who take the time to review, it's greatly appreciated! 


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon Frontier or the characters, please don't sue me.  
  
ANs: Well, chapter one is up. I'm a little surprised. The plot is moving fast. Slow down!  
  
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Kouji struggled through the underbrush of the thick fir forest, trying to keep in mind the fact that a smaller child was following after him, and if he released the branches he was sweeping out of the way too suddenly they were likely to whip back and whack the smaller child square in the face. Having spent a good deal of his life alone, it was rather hard to adjust to the other person who was suddenly there, behind him, beside him when he ate, walked, rested, slept. The boy wasn't that much trouble; he was old enough that he did not require constant attention, just the presence of someone else. Kouji was sure the boy was personable and talkative, even holding back as he seemed to be (you didn't have to be incredibly aware to realize Kouji's liking for quiet) he was still loud, constant and happy, he was happy, but every now and then it seemed he was trying very hard not to cry, which he was succeeding at, when he could be kept off the topic of his friends. Unfortunately, his way of accomplishing this seemed to be to pester Kouji with questions.  
  
"Do you have brothers and sisters?"  
  
Kouji sighed. "Not... really."  
  
"Lucky! Being an only child must be really cool too! I have an older sister, she's nice, but she's not at home very much, she has school, and work, and a boyfriend," here Kouji could hear what he supposed was Tomoki making a face, "so she's not at home so much. That's alright though. I understand." Tomoki's voice made it clear that, although he might understand, the excuses didn't really make up for her absence. Kouji turned 'round abruptly, letting go of a springy pine branch in the process and not ducking quickly enough. It whacked him hard on the right side of his head. He grimaced slightly, but did not turn to face it.  
  
"You miss your sister?"  
  
"Well, of course! She's my sister! And she's really cool! She can _drive_!" Tomoki's voice betrayed just how cool he thought this was, driving was obviously a sort of ultimate achievement in his eyes.  
  
"This, from someone who can turn himself into a Digimon and fight evil?" Sure, driving was cool, but being a Digimon beat it hands down. In Kouji's view. Of course, he took the subway all the time... But wasn't every kid's dream to be a superhero? Except his... But again, he wasn't quite a normal kid.  
  
"I suppose... Whoa, watch out for that-"  
  
The warning was a second too late, and Kouji slammed into a large tree. He had been walking and talking at the same time, and it had brought about rather painful results. Stepping back involuntarily, Kouji forced himself not to check his face with his hands. Showing weakness in front of others was unforgivable. It was bad enough that he had managed to hit himself with that branch earlier. That had really stung, too. He stepped around the tree and moved on. Silence dropped back over the searchers once more.  
  
Birds, or bird digimon at least, began to chirp in the branches. Both children looked up, but were unable to catch sight of whatever was singing. Kouji hummed quietly to himself before realizing what he was doing and stopping.   
  
"Why'd you stop? You should hum if you wanna."   
  
"Leaving aside the fact that humming is unseemly, it will only serve to attract enemies to our position."  
  
"Do you worry all the time? What about having fun? The Digital World is really cool, but if you're busy worrying all the time, you'll miss it!"  
  
"Discretion is the better part of valor."  
  
"What's that mean?"  
  
"It pays to be cautious. If you go around smelling the flowers and listening to the birds all the time you won't hear when- shh!" Stopping in the middle of his sentence, Kouji threw himself to the ground and took Tomoki with him. Half a dozen darts flew through the air above them.   
  
They both rolled over, Kouji to his knees and Tomoki into a tree. Three Stingmon hovered above them, long silver lance-like arms braced to stab as they launched into a dive at the unprotected Tomoki, who covered his head with his hands and whimpered. They never struck their target, as a large tree limb struck them first, wielded by Kouji. Two of the insect digimon went flying into a tree, the third up into the upper canopy of tree branches. Kouji was ready for their return, and, using the branch like a vaulting pole, catapulted himself up into the air and drove two hard into a large cedar tree. They slid to the ground, unmoving.   
  
Running back to Tomoki, he found the smaller boy slapping ineffectively at the third Stingmon, which was trying to act on its name. Kouji leapt up easily and brought the branch down with a resounding crack. The branch broke, and the digimon sunk to the ground, as unconscious as its hive-mates.   
  
Panting slightly, Kouji dropped the branch and helped Tomoki out of the brush. When he had successfully 'rescued' the boy he stood and walked on as if nothing had happened, leaving the Stingmon where they lay.  
  
"Hey, aren't you gonna ... do something about them?"  
  
"Such as what? They are no danger to us, and to get their code I'd have to beat them further. I don't hit people, or digimon, when they're down, and I do not fight without reason."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Why what? Why do I not hit things when they are down? Because it's unfair, and cruel. Why do I not fight when I don't have to? Because it's a waste of energy."  
  
"Cool. But then why are you and the others always fighting?"  
  
Kouji turned to look at the boy, shock showing on his face more than he would have liked.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You and the others, you're always arguing with each other."  
  
"We do not. I just don't agree with their views all the time. It is only a little friction. Now quiet, there could be more digimon in the woods." Kouji ended the conversation easily, and validly. He didn't fight with the others, they just disagreed. Right? It would be foolish to waste his time with them, they never knew where they were going, or what they were doing, or how they would do it, should they manage to get there. And if their paths happened to cross, well then, he couldn't be held responsible if they objected to his ideals, and he to theirs. They certainly weren't fighting. At least, not most of the time...  
  
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In the forest on the other side of the clearing Takuya was stumbling over roots and underbrush. His arm had stopped bleeding early in the night, and now although it still hurt he was pretty sure it wasn't anything to be worried about. Being lost in the forest, on the other hand, might be a concern. They had been wandering around since the early morning in search of Tomoki. The others were getting tired, and impatient. Tomoki was important to them, but sore feet and empty stomachs tended to be paid more attention.   
  
The whining was getting annoying, and they weren't getting any closer to finding anything. Junpei was hungry, Izumi was sore, and the two digimon, smaller with shorter legs, were both tired from the climbing through the underbrush. One more comment, and Takuya thought he might snap.  
  
"I'm SO hungry."   
  
"THAT'S ENOUGH! You guys have been whining all morning. Is no one other than me worried that there's a little kid lost out there in the woods somewhere, all alone?" Takuya threw his hat down in disgust, his goggles going flying in the process. Izumi and the two digimon stared at him in shock, but Junpei, not one to back down to someone keeping his food from him shrugged.  
  
"Yeah, we're worried. But you don't seem too worried about _us_, lost out in the woods all alone, starving."  
  
"We aren't alone, there are five of us! And we aren't starving! We had breakfast only two hours ago. Tomoki doesn't have any food with him! We've eaten today, we slept all night, we haven't even been walking that long, and you're all already complaining?! Fine, if you want to sit here and eat and rest while little Tomoki is out there in the woods, quite possibly getting attacked by evil Digimon, fine! I'll go find him on my own!" Takuya picked up his hat and stomped off into the underbrush. The others looked at each other sheepishly, and ran after him.  
  
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Kouji and Tomoki had come to a river. A cold, fast river, the type seen in those movies where a kid and his pet dog/wolf/bear get stranded out in the wild and have to climb across it over a log, and there are a lot of camera shots of the huge white waves and shimmering blue, freezing water. Fortunately, as it was extremely unlikely that the others had crossed this river, it meant that the two boys wouldn't have to either. Keeping well away from its edge, they headed up river, Kouji keeping an eye on the damp ground for any footprints and Tomoki staring into the rushing water, amazed and just a little scared.   
  
Although it was a good idea to follow a river when lost in the human world, doing so in the Digital World was not as wise, if you had no proof that your friends had traveled that way before you. It put you out in the open, and next to another element in which some digimon could live. Megaseadramon was a good example of one such digimon, as the two boys discovered when one reared out of the water and tried to electrocute them. The sound of him breaking the water's surface was, fortunately, enough warning for Kouji to throw both himself and the smaller boy out of the way of the attack, but sent him flying into a rock hard enough to wind him severely. He lay, unable to move, to do anything except watch as the huge dragon digimon rose up above them, preparing to fry them.   
  
Tomoki had no such inhibitions, and pulled out his digivice.   
  
"Spirit evolution!" A flash later Chakmon stood on the shore, staring up, up at the much larger digimon. He smiled in what he obviously hoped was a disarming way, before attempting to freeze over the river from which Megaseadramon was rising. The river was too wide though, and the current too fast to be frozen. Megaseadramon dove straight for Chakmon, mouth wide and gaping.  
  
By this time Kouji had recovered sufficiently to spirit evolve, which he did, and drove Megaseadramon off with his Licht Seiger.* Well, back into the water, at any rate. Where he stayed for about .25 of a second before rearing out again and tackling Wolfmon into the rock he had hit as Kouji. Crushed against the rock, Wolfmon could do little but hope that Megaseadramon would want to get back into the water before he was forced to de-digivolve. Fortunately, before Megaseadramon could press hard enough to squish Wolfmon into paste or force him to de-digivolve, Chakmon tackled into the evil digimon's side, freezing it with his breath. Megaseadramon cursed and slid back into the water, from where he launched a Thunder Javelin at Chakmon, scoring a direct hit. Chakmon de-digivolved, and Tomoki lay, panting, next to the river. Megaseadramon reared up, sharp teeth shining in the daylight, and plunged at the unprotected human. Wolfmon barreled into him, licht seigers fired up, and sent both of them into the freezing river. His seigers scored deep into Megaseadramon's side and he was digitized, the code returning to Wolfmon's digivice. As soon as it had finished being downloaded, Wolfmon de-digivolved and Kouji was left bobbing down the river, more unconscious than anything, and thus sinking fast.  
  
Tomoki pulled himself up off of the ground and ran after the older boy, eyes wide. The river narrowed a little as it ran down, and Tomoki grabbed a passing branch. The exhaustion of digivolving and the pain of being crushed against a hunkin' big rock left Kouji with very little strength to fight the current. Tomoki managed by chance to get ahead of Kouji, and stick out the branch over him. Kouji crashed straight into it, but grabbed hold after a second, and Tomoki managed to drag Kouji close enough for the larger boy to climb out onto the bank, where he fell on his back, gasping for breath.  
  
When, after a minute or so, he had stopped gasping like a fish out of water, Tomoki helped him to the cover of the forest, leading him after he realized that, with his bandana hanging, soaked, over his eyes, there was no way Kouji could see where he was going. Once they were safely away from the water they sat down against a large tree and Kouji pulled off his bandana, ringing the water out of it. Tomoki stared at him.  
  
"Hey, your hair is really long!"   
  
Said hair was currently in Kouji's face, and he wiped it away impatiently.   
  
"You never noticed before?" After wringing the bandana out he replaced in his hair and took off his coat, wringing that out as well, shivering involuntarily. The water had been freezing, and now he was soaked by it.   
  
"Are you gonna be okay? You're all wet, and cold. You should go sit in the sun and dry off!"  
  
"To be in the s-sun, I would have to go out by th-the river, which h-has Megaseadramon in it. T-t-too danger-rous." Chattering had set in, followed by the compulsive arm-rubbing. Kouji forced himself to his feet and began to pace, still rubbing his arms.  
  
"The c-c-clothes w-will dr-dry faster if I k-keep moving." The chattering was getting worse, as was the cold, especially with the forest wind which had before seemed warm before but now had turned frigid. He tripped over an unseen root and went down face first into the dirt. He managed to roll and take the fall with his shoulders instead, saving his face from the ground. The dirt stuck to his wet clothes, and sticks and bark poked him in the back. He shifted uncomfortably before letting himself fall limp on the ground, eyes closed.   
  
"Damn it." The breath escaped in little more than a whisper.  
  
Tomoki knelt down next to him, and shook his arm, getting no response.   
  
"A-are you okay? You shouldn't swear. Hey, Kouji-san, wake up! Kouji-san? Kouji-saaan!"   
  
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* You think they could have disguised 'light saber' any worse?  
  
Thank you so much to those who reviewed! 


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon Frontier, nor the characters. Please don't sue me (you think I could change this one of these days?)  
  
ANs: I'm sorry for upping the rating (and it's not like it's much bigger now...), but it is kind of needed... nothing major, I'm sure I'm not about to scare anyone off. You do, after all, need some evil characters, and to obtain that status, they must do some evil things (how evil can they be and still fit in the PG-13 border is a good question)...  
  
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"Kouji-san? Kouji-saaan!"  
  
"Stop shaking me! And your yelling will attract evil things." Kouji pushed Tomoki away with one hand, keeping the rest of his body perfectly still. Tomoki shuffled away and sobbed into his hands.  
  
"I just, just wanted to make sure you were okay. You didn't have to push me!" Tomoki sniffed, and then rubbed his eyes with his fists. "I know when I'm not wanted!" He shuffled to his feet and ran off into the woods, batting tree limbs away blindly, disappearing into the thick brush quickly. Kouji opened his eyes.  
  
"Hey! Get back here, it's dangerous out there! Hey!" Kouji pulled himself to his hands and knees, and then to his feet, slowly moving after the running child. "Tomoki, are you okay? Come back!" He was pretty sure he saw, or maybe heard, Tomoki turn around before something hit him over the head. He cried out, and then everything went black.  
  
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Tomoki pushed himself away from Kouji easily and ran off, one hand up to his eyes to wipe away his tears, the other clearing a path. He heard Kouji-san shouting after him and slowed down, looking back. Kouji-san was trying to follow him, was asking if he was alright, and yelling him to come back. He stopped and turned and watched, eyes wide, as a huge, dark digimon with six red eyes appeared behind Kouji-san and hit him over the head with its fist, watched as Kouji-san cried out and fell forward only to be caught be the digimon. It held him easily, the taller boy seemed a toy doll in the digimon's hands. It turned, black wings breaking down trees and branches, and lumbered off into the darker part of the forest. Tomoki gulped, and followed it.  
  
Tracking the black digimon was not difficult as it left in its wake broken trees and flattened shrubs. The trail it left also made it easier for Tomoki to walk through the forest: there were no longer any trees to be circumnavigated, or shrubs to be beaten back, they had all been pulverized.   
  
Tomoki followed the digimon to a cave surrounded by mossy trees with Old Man's Beard hanging from them, soaking up the wet, dank atmosphere. The trees blocked out the light, and the wetness in the air chilled it, making the whole area cold and dark. Only the eyes of the digimon holding Kouji gave off any light, and that light was red and scary. Tomoki kept his eyes to the ground, away from the scary digimon's eyes, and so did not notice the second digimon until it was too late, and he had run into it. Its arm whipped out and it grabbed him, huge dark claws pressing uncomfortably close to his neck. He whimpered, and then struggled, but the digimon's hand was as big as his whole body, he had no chance.   
  
The two giant digimon carried the kids further into the cave, until they reached a large cavern with several small corridors that branched off on either side. The cavern was obviously the end of the cave, it went no deeper, only further to either side. A raised platform of uneven stone and wood sat against the cavern wall at the back, a large burning torch lit it from each corner. On the platform seated in a tall-backed chair sat a dark, regal, evil female digimon (as female as any digimon ever got, in any case). The black leather that clothed her was full of rips and cuts, most of which had been badly stitched up. Chains encircled her arms, and passed over the black belt at her waist. Her long grey hair escaped out from under a black leather mask, also full of stitches. The two capturers kneeled before her, Kouji was dropped on the ground, still unconscious, and Tomoki was held forward but not released. She stared at her two prisoners, then stood and stepped down off the platform, approaching her two minions, specifically the one who had brought Kouji in.  
  
"What did you do to him? I ordered him captured unharmed!"   
  
Kouji was obviously not in top shape, aside from the fact that he was unconscious, he was shivering violently. The female digimon slapped her flunky's hand. The digimon, at least four times her size, winced visibly.   
  
"Found him like this. Not our fault." The digimon's speech was more grumbles than words, pitched so low that Tomoki could hardly understand it at all.  
  
"Well, now I'll have to spend valuable time fixing him up! Time that I didn't want to spend on that! And you, Devidramon, will be responsible if anything ... _bad_ happens to him." She smacked the Devidramon again, and then knelt down beside Kouji. Tomoki watched as she picked up his jaw with her long hand and stared into his face. Slowly she stretched out her other hand and, grabbing his shirt, lifted him up into the air. Kouji grimaced and opened his eyes. He stared at her for an instant, and then cried out and instinctively tried to shove himself away. She only laughed.   
  
"Well, I see I've woken you up. I am Lady Devimon. You may call me mistress." She laughed and set him on his feet (he then fell to his knees), and then turned to Tomoki. "And you. I did not ask for you to be brought to me. But perhaps you will be useful." She turned to the Devidramon who had brought Kouji in. "And what of the other... Where is he?"  
  
"Not with them. Somewhere else. Bring him soon." The Devidramon turned and stalked out of the cave. The second stared at Lady Devimon.  
  
"Me?" It shifted its weight, lifting Tomoki off the ground, and then putting his hand back down.  
  
"Take their digivices, and then take the two of them to the cell, and go guard the entrance to the cave." She turned and stepped up to her throne. The Devidramon fished the two digivices out of their pockets and threw them to Lady Devimon who set them down by the side of her throne, uninterested in them. As they were moved away, Kouji struggled against the large hand he now found himself incased by.  
  
"Why do you want us? You haven't killed us, nor have you taken anything from us."  
  
"From the boy? Nothing. I want you. You will be my slave, my servant, my toy. You, and the other, if that idiot finds him. But for now, you may rest." She waved her hand, and the Devidramon lumbered off into one of the side corridors. Even bending down his back and wings still rubbed against the roof.   
  
The corridor ended abruptly, and the Devidramon set down his two captives. Stepping back, he pulled out, from the side of the corridor, a large network of bars, almost like a portcullis and slammed it into the ground, walls and roof of the corridor, effectively trapping the two boys in the space behind it, a space about two meters deep and one meter both tall and wide. Kouji was forced to sit, or bend over. He chose the first option. Tomoki stood at the front of the 'cage' and rattled the bars, to no avail. The Devidramon had moved off, leaving them alone in the dark, the only light was the pale shine at the end of the corridor, coming from the torches set about Lady Devimon's platform.   
  
"I can't move it. We can't get out! We're trapped!" Tomoki's voice was edging closer to tears. He turned to Kouji who could, sure enough, see the bright tears collecting in his eyes.   
  
"Kouji-san, what do we do?" The earlier fight seemed forgotten. Tomoki walked over and took a seat next to the older boy, sitting (for Kouji) uncomfortably close.   
  
"Hey, you're still wet. And cold..." Tomoki put a hand on Kouji's arm. Kouji shrugged it off.  
  
"I'm fine." He grit his teeth together. "Are there any openings in the door? For food, or something?" He pointed with the arm that Tomoki wasn't pressing himself against.   
  
The smaller boy got up again, and went back to the barrier between them and freedom. He pushed at the metal, and finally found a part that gave a little. Pushing his hand through the bars, he shook it from the outside. A section about thirty centimeters squared, and thirty centimeters from the top* moved with his hands. More fiddling allowed him to pull out the pin that kept the hatch, presumably for passing food through, closed. He pushed it open and winced as it screeched slightly. When, after a minute, no one came to investigate, he went back to Kouji.  
  
"Kouji-san, you were right, there is an opening. It's pretty small, but I think we could get through it. C'mon, we have to get out of here!" He pulled on Kouji's arm and the latter crawled over and felt the hole in the cage.   
  
"I can't fit through there. But you can. You have to get out and find the others. Warn them. Lady Devimon is obviously after one of them, probably Takuya. If you can't find them, wait near the entrance to the cave. The Devidramon will find whoever they're looking for soon, and bring them back. Hopefully you'll be able to help free them before they end up in here, like we did. Got it?"  
  
"On my own? What about you?" Tomoki turned to Kouji, who he could hardly see in the dim light. The older boy appeared to have sat down again.  
  
"Yes, on your own. I'll stay here and wait for you to come back. I'm ... counting on you, Tomoki."   
  
"I can't! The Devidramon are guarding the exit! And they're so dark, I won't even notice them 'til I run into them, like last time! They'll squish me!" The tears were returning.  
  
"Like last time?"  
  
"Unn, I followed them from where they caught you here, but then I ran into one, and he grabbed me."  
  
"Well then, that just proves that you're small enough to get past them unnoticed. You have to go warn the others. You don't want them to get caught, like we did, do you?" Kouji's voice was surprisingly soft, Tomoki was a little surprised that he hadn't just shoved him out the hole yet.  
  
"But, but you!"  
  
"I'll be fine. She didn't want me hurt on capture, she won't hurt me now." Kouji's voice was strong, he at least appeared to believe what he said (whether he actually did or not was impossible to say). "You understand what you have to do?"  
  
"U, Unn!" Tomoki nodded, then sniffed and wiped the tears out of his eyes. "You can count on me! I'll come back for you, Kouji-san!" Before he could think any better of it, Tomoki threw himself on Kouji, hugging him hard. Kouji did nothing for a minute, but then rubbed the smaller boy's back softly.   
  
"Off you go now. I'm relying on you." Kouji stood as tall as he was able and pushed the piece of metal blocking the hole up. Tomoki climbed up the gate-thing and, supporting his weight on his feet, pushed his arms through first and then began to pull the rest of himself after them. Kouji moved his hand through another hole in the gate and held up the hole-blocker from there. Tomoki wriggled through the hole and fell with a thud onto the ground.   
  
"Are you alright? Hurry up and run!" Kouji let down the metal he had been holding softly, and Tomoki thought he saw him retreat back into the darkness of the cage. The smaller boy gulped, pulled down on his hat, and ran without looking back. When he reached the main cavern he edged around it, being careful to keep to the darkness and shadows.   
  
At the end of the entrance way, just as Lady Devimon had ordered, sat the Devidramon, looking for all the world like a giant, dark piece of stone. With glowing red eyes. Tomoki gulped again, and hugged the wall, moving as slowly as he could while still making progress. The Devidramon did not move. He skirted it, and moved off, unnoticed, into the underbrush.  
  
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Lady Devimon, bored of doing nothing, took a torch from one of the holders around her platform and walked sedately with long steps down the corridor which held her two prisoners. The arrival of the smaller one had surprised her, but she had been plotting since then, and had decided that he would serve well as a stress toy. And right now, she was feeling stressed. And bored. Both of which she imagined could be cured by taking them out on the smaller one. As she walked, she smiled, and dug her nails into the wood of the torch. The fire crackled merrily, but the wood split into four different pieces, broken easily by her very claw-like nails.   
  
As she got closer, even in the dim light it became apparent that the cell was holding only one occupant, and he was sitting up against the far wall, knees drawn up and arms around them. The boy who she had meant to capture was the only one in the cell. For a minute, she thought that perhaps the Devidramon, recognizing the fact that she hadn't wanted the smaller boy to begin with, had either released him or otherwise disposed of him. But she knew that she had ordered both boys brought here, and her servants, dull as they were, were nowhere near stupid enough to not obey her. Which left only one option. The boy had gotten away. A snarl escaped her, and the boy looked up.   
  
"Where's the little kid? Tell me, boy, and maybe I'll be kind to you." Anger helped the words come easily. She hadn't intended to do anything to this one (at least not until she grew bored of him), but if he had helped the other escape... she had so been looking forward to playing with the little one, she had made herself look forward to it. The boy continued staring at her, but made no move to speak.  
  
"Well boy? Answer me!" She dropped the torch and threw herself against the wall, shaking the metal. Her long fingers curled around the bars of the wall and crushed the metal as if it were tin foil. She pulled the gate away and threw it behind her. The boy continued staring coolly at her. She was actively fuming, her long hair falling over her shoulders, and her legs spread apart to allow her to lower herself enough to fit in the shorter space.   
  
"Tell me!" The growl from earlier was back, in her voice. She leant forwards and picked up Kouji by the front of his shirt, slamming him into the uneven back wall of the cave.  
  
"Don't touch me." He locked his fingers together over his head and brought the fist of his combined hands down hard on her arm, forcing her to drop him. She screamed and launched herself at him, using her uninjured hand to pin him by the neck against the wall, her long fingernails grazing his neck, drawing blood.   
  
"How did he get out? How!?!" She pressed harder, burying her nails into the wall, trapping him against it. She held up her other hand in front of his face, her hand elongating, and becoming a long, thin knife. She lowered her hand, and pressed the knife against his stomach.   
  
"My kindness is fast leaving me!" She pressed her face up close, almost against his, and pressed the blunt of the knife harder into his stomach. Blood ran down his neck.   
  
"Eat dirt." He kicked his feet up into her stomach. Her eyes widened, and she pulled her hand out of the wall, swiping at him with her now freed nails. They left three shallow cuts on his chest.  
  
"So, you prefer dull weapons, eh?" Her voice lowered to a harsh whisper, and the knife returned to its original form. Her hands formed fists, which she drove almost casually into his stomach, watching in amusement as he bent over, wrapping his arms around his middle.  
  
"All I want to know is where the little kid is. That's not too much to ask, is it?" She drove her fist into his stomach again.   
  
"Ask me no questions, because I _won't_ answer them!" Kouji leapt up and roundhouse kicked her, knocking her into the wall. He ran one step before her foot lashed out and kicked his out from under him. He hit the ground hard, and before he knew it she was on top of him, holding his head by his pony tail, and driving him into the floor. After a few blows she lifted it up, pulling up all the weight of his upper body by his hair. He gasped, and then bit his lip to keep from crying out until it bled.  
  
"You won't tell now? So how 'bout NOW?" She pulled him up and kicked him in the stomach with her pointed shoes. He rolled hard against the ground and then crashed into the wall and lay there against it gasping for breath. She strode over and again pulled his head up by his hair, ripping his bandana away to get at it.  
  
"Well? WELL?!?" She scratched her nail across his neck again, drawing more blood. He coughed. She pulled his head up higher, so that they were nose to nose, and bared her teeth. He stared at her for a moment, before spitting at her. Her hands convulsed, nails digging into his neck for a minute before they froze. She stared at him, her entire body stiff, and then she released him and backed away, wiping the spit off with a rigid hand.  
  
"I shall return. And when I do, we will continue this chat."   
  
As she turned to leave, after shutting the cage with a new portcullis-like structure, she heard the boy slump to the ground, breathing ragged. Lady Devimon smiled in the darkness.  
  
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Takuya, Izumi, Junpei, Bokomon and Neemon were continuing with their search of the forest. It had turned up nothing yet, not even any footprints. Takuya was having doubts about the direction they had chosen, but was no longer sure which way the field that they had started out in lay, and so they could not return to it and try a different path.   
  
The sound of huge wing beats attracted everyone's attention (except possibly Neemon's). A shadow descended over the group, blocking out what sun made it through the trees. Trees being crushed before the group clued them to get out of the way, which they did with alacrity. The Devidramon (which was, of course, what the shadow was) landed, after clearing its own runway. On either side of it children spirit evolved, turning into digimon, and launched their attacks, attacks of wind, fire and lightening. The Devidramon weathered them all as if they were nothing, and indeed to him, they weren't, and then, spreading its giant wings, launched itself directly at Agnimon, tackling the smaller digimon into a tree. The tree broke, and the Devidramon grabbed its opponent in its giant fist and threw him into another. Agnimon, spinning out of control, was unable to catch himself and hit the second tree head on. The others charged the Devidramon, but it flung them off easily, and grabbed Agnimon again, squeezing until Agnimon de-digivolved, leaving Takuya in the Devidramon's huge hand. The Devidramon lifted off the ground, batting the remaining digimon away with its free hand and its wings. The kids were blown away by the large gusts of air from his takeoff, and for a few minutes could do nothing but watch as he escaped with Takuya.  
  
Fairymon finally roused herself, grabbed Bokomon and Neemon, and flew into the air after him, Blitzmon sharp on her tail. However, by the time they had gotten into the air, the Devidramon had landed somewhere, and was now hidden amongst the trees, gone from sight, with no trail left to follow.  
  
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Tomoki, alone in the woods with no digivice and no supplies, decided it would be better to wait at the entrance of the cave for the other Devidramon to return, and see what he brought with him. He found a good place along the side of the large cleared path in front of the cave (presumably the runway) in the crook of a tree and settled down in it. He did not have long to wait, soon he heard the sound of huge wings beating, and the Devidramon landed, like a huge, clumsy bird. It held in its fist a still struggling Takuya. Tomoki, despite the risk, stood up and took off his hat, waving it to attract Takuya's attention. He wasn't sure at first, but he thought that, before the Devidramon bore him off into the depths of the cave, Takuya had seen him. It was made obvious though when he saw something lying on the ground. Something small and shining. Something that looked suspiciously like Takuya's digivice.  
  
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Hi! I'd just like to thank the reviewers! Umm, for the one question (which I'm not sure I fully understood, but I did get the just of), yes, after falling in something really cold, like a river, you should keep moving to stave off hypothermia, and to help the water evaporate. That's a good thing, because it's the water that's making you freeze (and the wind chill, and the air, but mainly the water). Anyway, hope that helps, and hope you all enjoyed the chapter!  
  
*That's a foot, both squared and from the top, for those imperial people out there. A meter is three feet 4 inches. 


	4. Chapter 3

I don't own Digimon Frontier, nor the characters, please don't sue me.  
  
AN: Boy, things are just getting worse. Why is it that my characters always dig themselves in so deep? I'm going to have to start writing Watership Down, or something. And even then, they'd probably end up in snares. *sigh*  
  
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Takuya, after a fight and a flight, found himself in a large cavern, held by a large black digimon, a digimon large enough to hold all of him in one hand with not very much sticking out either end of the fist. He was brought before another digimon, who introduced herself as Lady Devimon, his mistress, and then ordered him thrown in the cell with 'the other'. Whoever that was. Hopefully not a rabid, flesh-eating digimon. But with his luck...  
  
He was carried down a passage that broke off from the main cavern. At the end of it a large grid-like gate had been driven into the walls, ceiling and floor of the cave. The digimon carrying him- Devidramon, Lady Devimon had called it- pulled the gate forward and out with one hand, threw him in, and pushed it shut again. Takuya, rubbing his head, considered yelling after the already retreating digimon that, when Lady Devimon had said 'throw him in', she probably hadn't meant it literally, but gave it up as a lost cause.   
  
The part of cave that formed his cell had no lighting, the nearest lights were out in the main cavern, and as such it was very nearly pitch black in the cell. If there was someone else in it with him, it was unlikely he would find him/her/it by sight. Takuya sighed, he didn't really feel like talking anyway, and felt his way back to the wall, intending to sit down and lean against it. Which he did, but the thing on which he sat was certainly not the ground, as was made very apparent by its groaning when he plunked down on it. Takuya leapt up, and turned around, staring. It was no good though, he couldn't even see the wall.  
  
"Who's there? Answer me, I know you're there." Takuya got no reply, but when he really listened he was sure he could hear soft breathing, which didn't sound quite right. He leant forwards and stuck out his hand. His fingers grazed fabric, the fabric of a human shirt. His throat tightened. Whoever this was, he was human, and Takuya's mind leapt to one name immediately.  
  
"Tomoki!" He followed the fabric of the shirt up to the collar, his fingers curving around the back of 'Tomoki''s neck. Where he felt strands of loose hair. Takuya jerked back, puzzled, but followed the hair. It was long, much too long to be Tomoki's, and fell down the back of ... whoever this was. Izumi? But she had been all right when the Devidramon had left, and he hadn't seen another. Even if there had been, there was no way it could have gotten here before him. Who did that leave? A name came to the back of Takuya's mind. But it couldn't be. He kept his hair tied, for one thing, and, after a second's worth of further probing, Takuya found no bandana tied over the top of his head. Still...  
  
"Kouji?" He pulled the person up into a sitting position, and leant him back against the wall. Apart from the hair and bandana, the clothes appeared to be right for Kouji (or rather, they felt to be right). "Would you wake up? Now is _not_ a good time to be sleeping!" Takuya shook the other boy, eliciting another groan.  
  
"Don't know... how he got out... Mmph." Kouji (assuming that was indeed who it was) doubled over, gasping for breath, before shooting up, like one who has just awoken from a nightmare, and struck out at Takuya. Takuya, despite not see the punch coming, still only took half of it as it had not been aimed well. He rolled back with it, and came up fists first.  
  
"Alright, who are you? Tell me, or face the consequences!" Takuya stood up in an attempt to be menacing (and in an attempt to look like he knew what the consequences would be...), and whacked his head on the low ceiling. Swearing, he dropped to the floor and held his aching head.  
  
"Takuya?" It was Kouji alright.   
  
"Whadd'ya punch me for?" Takuya gritted his teeth together and stumbled back over to where Kouji sat.  
  
"I thought you were... someone else. How did you get here?"  
  
"Some big creep digimon, umm ... Devidramon, brought me. Before that, we were looking for- Tomoki! I saw him! I've got to go find him!" Takuya leapt up, remembering at the last second to duck, and threw himself against the bars. They did not move.  
  
"Relax. He's probably hiding out in the forest, like I told him to. He's certainly not in here, so wherever he is, he's better off than us." Kouji's voice was a harsh whisper, but Takuya thought nothing of it, his attention had been caught by a key point of the sentence, and he let go of the bars in favor of returning to face Kouji.  
  
"What do you mean, like you told him to? You came in here, and left him out there alone? What kind of -"  
  
"Idiot do you take me for?" Kouji broke in before Takuya could finish his thought. "Of course I didn't come in here willingly, nor did I abandon him. Well, perhaps a little. I found him wandering in the woods, looking for you. He's been staying with me, while we tried to find you. Obviously both of us need to work on our searching skills. Long story short, we were captured, like you, by the Devidramon. Tomoki escaped out of a food-hatch in a different grate, I told him to either go look for you guys and warn you, or stay by the cave entrance until you came anyway. Apparently he chose the latter."   
  
"Yeah, when I went by he was out there, waving his hat at me. I dropped my digivice for him, figured I wouldn't be getting a chance to use it in here before it was taken away. I hope he saw it." Takuya slid down to the floor next to Kouji. "Hey, why didn't you escape?"  
  
"I was too big to fit through. There might be another hole in this grate, you're welcome to try your luck." Kouji gestured to the grate.  
  
"What happened to the one he got out through?"   
  
Takuya wasn't sure, but he thought he might have felt Kouji wince. He shrugged it off easily.  
  
"Lady Devimon wasn't so happy to discover that he had escaped. She broke the grate. With her bare hands. Here's one piece of advice for you: don't annoy her." Kouji tried to laugh, it came out almost as a sob. He cut it off before it could get any closer towards a moan. Takuya started and turned to him.  
  
"Did you?"  
  
"Did I what?" Kouji's voice had sunk almost below a whisper, and was now harsh and tired.  
  
"Did you annoy her?" It made sense, the voice, the groans, the way he hadn't woken up until he (Takuya) had practically driven him into the wall. Takuya winced slightly.  
  
"You might say that. Do you see my bandana?" Kouji answered the question broadly, and then posed another. Takuya saw through the distraction easily ('what kind of idiot does he take _me_ for?') but turned and began shuffling around in the cell, searching for the small scrap of cloth. It was a pretty hopeless endeavor, and after a few minutes Takuya gave it up and returned to sit down. They both sat in silence for a minute.  
  
"Are you okay?" Takuya wished there was more light, if there had been, he would have been able to see the other boy, as it was, he was unable to assess Kouji for himself. And that made him nervous (he was also a little curious as to what Kouji would look like without the bandana, _and_ with his hair down, but that was fairly easily suppressed)   
  
"Not really, but I will be. Don't worry about it. She doesn't know where Tomoki is, but if she finds out, well..." He paused for a minute, obviously thinking. "Takuya, she doesn't know you know where he is, but if she asks you, or if she finds you know out... you can't tell her." It was almost a question, definitely a plea. The thought before it, 'if she finds out you know' left only one thing apparent. Kouji did not know how many secrets he would be able to keep.   
  
"Kouji, I'm his 'niisan. Of course I won't tell her. He'll be okay. And so will we, right?!" The confidence had returned with a vengeance. Takuya smiled, almost in spite of himself. "Yeah! We can take 'em!" He punched his fist in the air.  
  
"Now I remember why I don't hang out with you."  
  
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Tomoki, in the tree outside the cavern entrance, stared at the digivice lying in the dirt to the side of the Devidramon. To get it, he would have to leave the relative safety of the cave walls and walk out into the open. But if he didn't, someone else would find Takuya-oniisan's digivice, and they would either give it to Lady Devimon, or keep it for themselves, neither one of which was not a good thing. Tomoki balled up his fists and climbed down out of the tree.  
  
He crept along the wall for as far as he could, until he was back in the cave. He would approach from the back, from the Devidramon's blind spot. Almost slinking, he walked quietly towards the digivice, listening hard for anything that might come up behind him, and keeping his eyes on the Devidramon, which remained as still as a statue. He bent down, and reached out his hand. Almost, almost, there! He grabbed it, and back-peddled into the darkness of the cave. Once safely out of view of the Devidramon he hugged the wall again, and made his way back out of the cave for the second time, this time in possession of a digivice. Not _his_ digivice, but one was better than none.  
  
He returned to his hiding tree, as he liked to think of it, and mounted again into its bows. The Devidramon did not appear to have seen him. Once hidden completely in the tree's foliage (such as it was...), Tomoki stared at the digivice in his hand. It did nothing, not even glow. He pushed a few of the buttons. Nothing. Tomoki sighed, and then looked up. Something flew past. Curious, the small boy climbed higher, until he came out near the top of the tree, able to see the sky.   
  
Fairymon and Blitzmon had just flown by, and were now rapidly diminishing, flying off into the distance. Tomoki waved urgently at them, even waved his hat, but it didn't help, they weren't facing him. If he had shouted, they might have heard him, but the Devidramon certainly would have, and if it had captured Takuya, that meant that it had beaten the others, which meant that if it came to see what the noise was, they would all get pulverized, and Tomoki couldn't lead his friends into something like that. Not to mention that if he did, there would be no way for them to rescue Kouji-san and Takuya-oniisan. Tomoki's lip began to quiver, and he bit it fiercely. 'Stop that! You can't cry now, Kouji-san said he was counting on you to rescue him! And now they have Takuya-oniisan too! You have to save them, not be a crybaby!' Tomoki sniffed, but his lip stopped its quivering, and he gripped the digivice tighter. 'They'll have to come back sooner or later, when they don't find us after a while. When they do, well, I'll signal them then!' He spoke to the digivice, which remained cold and lifeless in his hand  
  
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Footsteps alerted Takuya to someone's approach. The bobbing light, coming closer, showed the tall figure of Lady Devimon. She put the torch in a holder a ways back from the gate keeping Takuya and Kouji prisoner, lit another torch, crossed to the other side of the corridor and put it in a holder there too. The two fires lit the end of the corridor well enough so that Takuya could see everything around him in the flickering light, not that there was that much to see. The uneven floor cast short shadows, the uneven roof cast longer ones. In one corner of the cell he spotted Kouji's bandana lying on the floor, dirty but not torn, as far as he could see. He blinked, and turned to Kouji. The other boy was still leaning against the wall, watching Lady Devimon's movements with hooded eyes. His hair kept, for the most part, behind his shoulders, but even with it out of the way, he still seemed, to Takuya, to be almost a different person. Of course, the dirt and bruises scattered over his face, and the blood running down from a cut over one temple and a split lip did not help. His clothing was just as dirty, but did not appear very damaged. Dry blood stuck to his neck in numerous places, the cuts that most had come from still open and red. Takuya swallowed, and forced himself to look away. He didn't want to draw attention to Kouji, although it seemed a little late for that.   
  
Lady Devimon leant up against the bars, arms crossed and smiling.  
  
"Well, at least this time I have the right number of birds in the pie, eh boys? Oh now, don't be shy, come and say hello to nice mistress." She opened her arms, as if wanting a hug, but instead pulled the grill away, moved forwards and swung around, and then pulled it closed behind her. "Can't take any risks, wouldn't want you to get away now, would I? You boy!" She pointed to Takuya, "where is that thing you all carry, like the one I took away from the other two, your..." she waved her hand in idle circles searching for the word, as she did so it became the sharp steel knife, "digivice." She lunged at him, pinning him up against the wall, knife at his throat. Takuya gulped and shook his head.  
  
"I dunno. I musta dropped it somewhere. Have you seen it?" He smiled innocently. She shoved him into the wall, but dropped the knife-hand away.  
  
"Insolent boy, if I knew where it was, I wouldn't be asking, now would I? But no matter, as long as you don't have it, I don't care where it is. Speaking of the location of misplaced valuables," she rounded on Kouji, who did not move, "have you remembered where the little boy's gotten to?" She stepped over and pulled him up by the front of his shirt. "I don't really _want_ to hurt you, you know. I wanted us to all be good friends, a master and her two little pets. But if you insist on keeping things from me, I will get ROUGH!" She threw him against the bars, which shook slightly but did not give away.   
  
"You know, I think you might have given me a bruise earlier. Care to look?" Before Kouji could object, she had grabbed him by the jaw with both hands and pulled his face up to hers. Takuya wasn't sure what she was doing, until he saw her raise and bend her leg. He jumped forwards to grab her, but she was already driving her knee up as hard as she could into Kouji's ribs, and bringing him down with almost equal force to meet her sharp joint. Her knee impacted with his chest with awesome force, the cracking sound it produced accompanied that of Kouji blowing out all the air in his lungs. She was watching in amusement as his wide eyes stared at her, and he tried to draw air back into his lungs, not able even to gasp any in.  
  
"Leave him alone!" Takuya rocketed into her, tackling her into the wall. She crashed into it with a cry but then swung her hand at him; however by that time he had retreated to Kouji's side. The other boy was lying on the ground, eyes and mouth still open wide, still trying to breath, his body too shocked to know what to do, too hurt to want to do what it was built to, the only things escaping his lips were small, pained choking sounds.   
  
"Breath, Kouji, you have to breath!" Takuya grabbed him by the shoulders and brought their faces up to the same level, overemphasizing his own breaths by raising and lowering his shoulders and head with them. Takuya could hear Lady Devimon coming up behind him, but he ignored her, even when she poked her knife into his back. After a few seconds, Kouji's body calmed down enough to let the air in, to follow Takuya's motions, and he relaxed and slumped back against the grate, his now grey face still contorted in pain, sweat mingling with the blood on his temple and chin. Lady Devimon yanked Takuya up and waved her knife in front of his eyes, the sharp tip coming disturbingly close to his face.  
  
"Would you like to try that again, little boy? How brave are you now, that my back's not turned to you?" She swept the knife past his face faster than he could follow, fast enough to make a whistling sound as it cut through the air. A few strands of brown hair fell to the ground, but no blood. Takuya sighed and then jerked with her as she fell forwards to reveal Kouji standing behind her, hands linked together. She spun around and threw Takuya straight into him, both of them falling to the ground, Takuya crushing Kouji under him. He rolled off quickly and stood again, fists raised against Lady Devimon. She stared caustically at him, trying to hide the fact that she was favoring one leg, and attempting to hold her ribcage (while endeavoring to appear dignified) .  
  
"Put your fists down boy, I don't box with my prisoners. I kill them. But I'll let you live, for a few hours, anyway, so you can contemplate your own deaths, and all the evil you've done to earn them." She cackled as she pushed the bars aside, and then slammed them back into place, walking away so quickly that she forgot to take the torches with her. Takuya snorted and turned back to Kouji, sweeping up the other boy's bandana on the way over.  
  
"Geez, Kouji, you weren't kidding about her. Why'd you do that? She wasn't going to hurt me." 'Too much', Takuya finished the sentence in his head, although that knife _had_ been pretty sharp... His voice was deceptively calm and kidding, not revealing the depth of the emotion behind it.  
  
Kouji snorted in reply. "Let's just say I was... returning the favor... Thanks." He remained laying where he had fallen, but opened his eyes and looked up at Takuya. Takuya balled his fists.  
  
"For what? Letting her do that to do? Falling on you? You should have let me take it.   
Damn!" Takuya punched the ground, his face red with anger, the hidden emotion hidden no longer. Kouji stared at him, slightly surprised.  
  
"You stopped her, didn't you? You couldn't have known what she would do. And if you hadn't stopped her then, she probably would have run her knife through me. As it was, I probably would have suffocated myself, if you hadn't helped. And don't go blaming yourself for my stupidity, it's a waste of energy. You aren't responsible for me, so don't go elevating yourself to that position, because you don't merit it." Kouji closed his eyes and turned away, biting his already split lip to stop a gasp from escaping with the movement.  
  
"You, how can you say that?! How can you say I don't have the right, the _rank_ to worry about you, to think I caused this, to be AFRAID for you! I'll do whatever I want! And if I want to blame myself for it, than I will, damn it!" Takuya pounded his fist into   
the ground again. Kouji opened his eyes and turned back to look at him, the amusement shining in his eyes mostly covering up the shock that Takuya's statement brought to him. Takuya glared at him for a minute, before relenting, and slumping back to the ground.  
  
"I sound pretty silly, don't I?" He sighed.  
  
"You sound like an idiot. But I think I should appreciate the gesture, if not the wording. And you should start having a care to what you say. I don't imagine your parents will be too happy if you start bursting out like that when you get home."  
  
"It doesn't seem to have stopped you."  
  
"I'm different. Is that my bandana?" The redirecting question again. And again, Takuya let it go.  
  
"Yeah, since she left the lights here, I was able to find it. Guess we frazzled her wits a little, eh?" Takuya dropped the bandana over his hand. Kouji gripped it firmly.  
  
"I don't think it'll do my hair a lot of good now. She snapped the elastic last time. You don't have one, do you?"   
  
Takuya stood and searched his pockets quickly, but found only some paper, some candy wrappers and a pack of gum, some of which he offered Kouji (who refused).   
  
"No, sorry. Izumi'll probably have on. I think... Maybe." Takuya shrugged and sat down again, leaning against the wall near Kouji's head. Kouji continued biting his lip, and blood continued flowing down his chin. Takuya winced slightly. His own back hurt him, leaning forwards and reaching back with a hand he found that it was tender, he had at least bruised it being slammed into the wall by Lady Devimon, maybe scratched it too. Still, it didn't hurt anywhere near enough for him to want to do that to his lip.   
  
"Are you okay?" Takuya leaned over Kouji, staring at him. Kouji opened his eyes (Takuya didn't remember when he had closed them) and rolled them.  
  
"Obviously not. But there's nothing to be done about it." No 'I'll be alright'.   
  
"But, will you be alright?" Takuya continued on, voicing the left out statement.  
  
"Does it matter? She's going to kill us anyway." Kouji wiped some of the blood away with the back of his hand, but more flowed down to replace it.  
  
"Yes, it matters! The others are out there somewhere, just waiting to save us! Tomoki's out there with my digivice, and he knows we're in here! We're getting out of here, Kouji!" Takuya's voice was strong, his convictions were strong. His friends _would_ save them.  
  
"Yes, and the three of you all fought the Devidramon, and still lost, right? Well, she has another one of them here, that's two, plus herself, and she's much stronger than them, as shown by the fact that she has complete control of them and does not appear to be using any sort of restraining device. She keeps them in order with her own strength. The five of us wouldn't even be able to beat her Devidramon." Kouji spat out some of the blood that had flown back the wrong way, and gritted his now red-stained teeth. Takuya stared at him.  
  
"We have to believe in them, believe that they'll rescue us, or it won't happen."   
  
"Wake up, Takuya, it's not going to happen, even if the entire Digital World believes in all of us. And even if we do, by some fluke, get away, well, she'll just send the Devidramon after us again, and we'll be back where we started." There was no belief, no hope in Kouji's voice. Only bitterness. Takuya turned on him, practically growling.  
  
"We will defeat her, and we _will_ escape!" He shook Kouji's shoulders hard, and then started, and yanked his hands away as if they were on fire. Kouji drew his knees up and rolled onto his side, his whole bode wracking with coughs, trying to draw air into his injured chest.   
  
"Oh God, oh God oh God! I'm sorry! Kouji, I'm sorry! What should I do? Kouji? Don't do this, tell me what to do! I'm sorry!" Takuya moved to be beside him, grabbed his shoulders again and pulled him upright, as he had done before. Kouji didn't meet his eyes, his head was bent down to his chest, chin tucked into his neck, hands shaking convulsively.   
  
"C'mon, breath, breath with me. You remember this, right? Concentrate. In, out, in, out, in, out." Takuya lifted him slightly with each inhale, and dropped him slightly with each exhale. After a minute Kouji began to respond, to breath properly again. He calmed, and went limp. Takuya held him up for a minute, unsure whether to let him lie down again, or keep him propped up. He decided on the latter, it would be more uncomfortable to sleep, but easier for him to deal with if this happened again. Takuya dragged him back to the back wall and leant him up against it. Kouji raised his head and looked at him, eyes only half open. Takuya stared back, tears in his own eyes.  
  
"Kouji, I, I'm so sorry, I forgot, I..." he swallowed, trying to get rid of whatever it was that was blocking his throat, and then realized it was guilt, and fear. "Are, are you okay?" It seemed a feeble apology at best, and Takuya wanted very much to disappear into a hole in the ground, or something.   
  
"Not ... really..."  
  
"Could you stop saying that? Please?"  
  
"What do you want? I'm dying? I'm not, at least, I don't think so (although if you keep carrying on the way you have been, that might change), but it's not going to just go away on its own. Something's wrong inside, and I don't really know what it is, but when it hurts to breath, that's not a good sign. I'm not escaping with you guys, that seems pretty clear."  
  
"Well, at least you admit now that we are escaping." Takuya tried to put on a smile, and failed. "Are there doctors in the Digital World?"  
  
"Damned if I know. I guess there might be... for digimon... I don't know, why does it matter? You guys beat the Devidramon, beat Lady Devimon, and leave me here. I'm not part of your little group, it won't affect you." He gave some kind of barking laugh, and tried to wipe the tears out of his eyes before they escaped.   
  
"What the HELL do you mean, it won't affect us?" Takuya half growled, half snapped out, before continuing a bit calmer, as if reminding himself what had happened last time he had gotten too annoyed, "if you weren't hurt, I'd punch you in the face. How selfish can you be? Just because you don't hang with us, doesn't mean I, we, don't care what happens to you! No way are we leaving you here! I don't have to take a vote to know that we're unanimous on that. You must either have really low self-esteem, or a really low estimate of my intelligence to think that we'd even consider that as a solution. Don't you _dare_ suggest we don't care what happens to you, or when you get better, I _will_ punch you in the face! You couldn't be more insulting if you tried." Despite his calming effort, Takuya was very nearly shouting, and Kouji looked like he would have liked very much to back away, had he been able to. "Everyone has someone who cares about him or her. And if you don't have anyone else, than I guess it'll be us." Takuya smiled, a real smile this time.  
  
Kouji rolled his eyes, but Takuya could see the amusement, and the pleasure, that the words had brought him. "Then I suppose I'll just have to suffer through it."  
  
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Hi all! Boy, things are just going downhill, eh? Akino Ame, I'd just like to say that I love that song! :) Actually, lots of the Frontier character songs are (lots being defined as Takuya's, Kouji's and Kouichi's) reallyreally good! People should go download them! I pity the salamanders. And, as always, thanks to all the reviewers! 


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon, or any of the characters. Please don't sue me.  
  
AN: The chapters are getting out pretty quick now, eh? (everyone: NOOO!) Well, quicker than is usual for me. Which means I like this story! Which is true. It's easy to write, anyway (does that mean it's not good enough, then?). So, the next chapter should be out soon, probably by Monday. Enjoy!  
  
Additional note: I had assumed Takuya's sibling, Shinya, was a girl (because he kinda looks like one, and that name looks feminine to me), but as a couple of reviewers pointed out, he is in fact a boy. That has been fixed. Thanks so much to those observant reviewers!  
  
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Lady Devimon sat on her cold throne, holding an icicle to her side, either ignoring or ignorant of the icy pain the icicle could cause to both her hand and her side when left there for a prolonged period. She balled her other hand into a fist, her long nails digging into her palms, her grip so tight that her arm started to shake. She banged her fist down on her chair's arm with a scream, and unconsciously shattered the ice in her other hand at the same time. The icy shards fell to the floor, where they sparkled with the light from the torches. She leapt out of her chair and smashed them with her foot until they were too small to shine, screaming all the while. A cold voice startled her out of her anger.  
  
"So, you continue to throw tantrums at your age? I can't say I'm surprised." The voice was low, and carried none of the respect she was used to hearing from those around her.  
  
She turned abruptly, ice shards forgotten, her eyes returning to cold and calculating.  
  
"And what do you want here? I thought you had gone to work for that fool... Seraphimon."  
  
"Oh, I get time off, now and then, you know. For important things. Like stopping you from doing something this stupid. Things like that..." He pointed a staff at her, light beginning to be drawn to it. Lady Devimon stepped back sharply, and something large and black barreled right into her attacker. The second Devidramon. It stood over her attacker, throwing him in its shadow. Lady Devimon strode over to him quickly and picked up his staff before he could reach it. She twirled it idly as she stared at down at   
him.   
  
"So, you would destroy me to help some _human_ children? You would kill one of your own kind to save some filthy _trash_? Hah. You're no better than them." She turned to the Devidramon, "throw him in with them, they can all await death together. And get those torches out of there. They don't deserve light!" She motioned towards the corridor in which Takuya and Kouji were being held, and the Devidramon promptly picked up his new charge and lumbered off in that direction. Lady Devidramon watched him go, still twirling the staff.  
  
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Kouji opened his eyes at the sound of something coming. Something _big_. A Devidramon, then. It tore the torches out of their holders and stamped on them, putting them out instantly. It then pulled open the cage door, threw something else in, and pushed it shut, walking away a second later. Kouji didn't bother to move, Takuya would figure out who it was.  
  
And sure enough, he heard the other boy make his way to the entrance of their cell, and scramble around, trying to find whatever had been unfortunate enough to be thrown in. Whoever it was made it easier by standing up and walking straight into Takuya, as Kouji could gather from the footsteps and the sound of them impacting on one another.  
  
"Who are you?" Takuya's voice, startled. Not someone they knew then. Kouji let out the breath he had been holding (and winced). They hadn't caught one of the others.  
  
"It is immaterial. You are a chosen child, correct? You can spirit evolve into a digimon?"   
  
Takuya replied in the affirmative, and the voice went on, "where's the other one being kept, two of you had been captured last I heard, isn't that right?"   
  
Takuya's voice showed his mistrust, "heard from who?"  
  
Kouji wasn't sure it mattered, if whoever this was knew, he knew, but he thought he appreciated whatever idiot sort of protection Takuya was trying to offer him. He wasn't sure, but he thought so.  
  
The other voice, much lower than Takuya's, and much less emotional, answered in quiet tones, "it doesn't matter so much _who_ sent me, as what they sent me to _do_. I am here to help you escape, because, for some unknown reason my master sees something in you, and has sent me to help. You can trust me. Besides, if I was a friend of Lady Devimon's, she wouldn't very well have thrown me in here with you."   
  
"He's in here. Over there." Takuya pointed. It was obvious, from his speech. Kouji rolled his eyes. Had he lifted his hand up in front of his eyes, he would not have been able to see it in this darkness, and neither could ... whoever, see where Takuya was pointing. But, once alerted that someone else was in the cell with him, the stranger seemed to almost ... sense Kouji out, he certainly began walking towards him with eerie accuracy. Takuya shadowed him closely. The stranger sat down next to him, from which position he spoke again. Kouji almost started, the voice was very close now.  
  
"What's wrong with you? Why are you lying on the ground, silent?"   
  
At least he hadn't been poked yet. "Nothing. I'm tired." No need to show his weakness to a stranger if he could get away without doing so, and the imposed blindness was a good aide towards that end.  
  
"Don't be a fool. Of course there's something wrong with you. It's obvious by the way your friend here is hanging over me, ready to jump me if I try to hurt you. Which means he doesn't think you can take care of yourself. I know that you're as old as him, he wouldn't be so protective, unless he thought _you_ were defenseless. So, what is it? Or I will poke you."   
  
He seemed to know exactly what Kouji was thinking. Kouji said nothing. The stranger leaned closer, only to be grabbed from behind and pulled away by Takuya.  
  
"Hey, lay off him. If he doesn't want to talk to you, deal with it." Takuya was using his angry and annoyed voice. Of course, he used that one fairly frequently, so Kouji supposed that it might be his real voice...  
  
"I can help him. I will help him, if you let me." The stranger was released.   
  
"How? Are you a doctor?"  
  
'Well, thanks for propagating the myth that all's well, Takuya.' Kouji's thoughts were anything but impressed.   
  
"No, but I have magic. I can use it to heal, if I know what's wrong with my patient." If you let me help him, I will. The original statement was still there, underlying.   
  
"For what price?" It was a valid point, the only things in the Digital World that had been free were traps and trouble.   
  
"To cure him, I need my staff. Get it for me, and I'll do it." And then there were those things that were monetarily free, but always ended up with you having to do impossible things to get them...  
  
Takuya apparently thought so as well, because his sarcasm was thick as a brick wall. "Oh yeah, I'll just shrink into a little mouse, run out of the holes in the door, grab a staff (which I have _no idea_ the appearance of) in my mouth, run back past the giant evil Devidramon, drag it in here, and give it to you then, shall I?"   
  
"No need to be sarcastic. But the only way I can heal him is with my staff. It's a price of necessity, not greed." Whoever this stranger was, he was not ruffled easily. Kouji sighed. It would turn out that the one person able to help them would be stuck in here with them, without the tool that would allow him to do so.  
  
"With your staff, can you defeat Lady Devimon?" He heard the other two turn towards him, and the stranger walked over.  
  
"Yes. But you would need to deal with her Devidramon. I cannot fight all your battles for you."  
  
"Why are you willing to fight this one?" Kouji refused to budge. Nothing was free. If he stayed stuck in the Digital World much longer, that would end up being his motto.  
  
"Because my master wishes me to."  
  
"And why is that?"  
  
"Because this was an obstacle you were not meant to face."  
  
There was nothing to be said in reply to that. Who was this guy to judge who was and wasn't meant to be faced by them? But, he was willing to help, and they needed it. Badly.  
  
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It was getting dark outside. Tomoki was getting cold, and scared. He wanted to light a fire to keep warm, and to keep away the shadows, but aside from the fact that that would attract the Devidramon, he also didn't think he would know how. Sure, on TV they just rubbed some sticks together and poof, instant fire, but he was pretty certain that wouldn't work for him. And worse, if it was getting dark, that meant that the others would stop searching soon and he would have to spend the night here, alone, in the dark. Tomoki whimpered quietly. A buzzing noise caught his attention. Something was moving on the skyline, moving towards him. Blitzmon and Fairymon! But they'd never see him, it was too dark. They'd pass over him, like they had the last time, and leave him, alone.  
  
Tomoki pulled out Takuya's digivice (he had shoved it in his pocked so he wouldn't drop it) and stared at it. It was dull in his hands. He pushed the buttons, and poked the blank screen. "C'mon, if you light up, they'll see me, and they'll come save the others!" He remembered to keep his voice down, but it was hard. "If you light up, we can save _Takuya-oniisan_! You remember him, your master? C'mon, you've got to help him out! Without you, who knows what'll happen to him and Kouji-san! Please! You have to light up!" He pressed the buttons all together, hard, and the screen sprang to life, glowing soft and red. Tomoki moved quickly so that he was in between the light and the Devidramon, and hoped that he could hide it from them while still attracting the attention of the others.  
  
It seemed to work, Tomoki felt his heart leap up into his throat as they came closer, closer, until he could see their eyes! He waved, and Fairymon landed precariously in the tree. Blitzmon continued to hover, afraid of landing and then falling out of the tree.  
  
"Tomoki! We've been SO worried! Where have you been! Where's Takuya, have you seen him?" She put the two digimon she had been holding down and gave Tomoki a huge hug, Tomoki wasn't sure if he should be happy or embarrassed (he didn't usually get hugs from scantily clothed female digimon...). He settled on the former, before realizing that Fairymon and Blitzmon had no idea that there was a Devidramon sitting right behind them. He swiveled around sharply, and found that he couldn't see enough through the tree's foliage to tell if it was still there. Odds are that it was though.  
  
"Fairymon, listen, there's a big Devidramon sitting right over there, and if it hears us, it's gonna come out and squash us like bugs! It's guarding the place where Takuya-oniisan and Kouji-san are! They got caught by this mean, mean lady digimon, Lady Devimon. Takuya-oniisan dropped his digivice for me, and I used it to signal you with! See!" He held the digivice up, but it had stopped glowing. Behind them, Blitzmon was getting tired of hovering. Fairymon sighed.  
  
"Look, let's go land a ways away and make a plan. We've got to do something, but sitting here in this tree worrying about being caught isn't helping. Blitzmon, can you carry him Tomoki please? I'll take Bokomon and Neemon." She picked them up and flew off before disappearing down into the trees. Tomoki was picked up (he got the feeling that he weighed nothing to Blitzmon), and they flew after her.  
  
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"Soooo... what's life in the human world like?"   
  
Kouji sighed. Could they not just sit in silence?  
  
"It's pretty good. The food's great!" That was Takuya all right. Kouji mentally rolled his eyes. The human world had hundreds of advantages over the digital one, and still the fist thing that came to Takuya's mind was food. "I like it here too, but ... I miss my family a lot. We all do." Now Takuya was getting sentimental. Greeeeat. And it wasn't even true either.   
  
'What do I have to miss? I'm as well off here as I am at home. At least there's something for me to do here, a purpose of me to _be_ here.' There didn't seem to be one of those at home. And then there was the one other question that had been plaguing Kouji's mind: if he didn't get home, would anyone care? What did he have? A pseudo-life with his father, moving from place to place so fast he hardly had time to find somewhere quiet to go, being forever without a constant in his life. His father was hardly ever there, he was either at work or ... somewhere else. Never home. No mother to speak of, no relatives who would consider visiting them (he did have an aunt, but he had only met her once, and that had not been under the best of circumstances. She had left again with no thought given towards him, and made it clear that she would not be returning).   
  
Who would care if he didn't go home, either because he stayed here or because he... Well, no need to be pessimistic now. But really, who would? Kouji was startled to find that four names immediately came to mind, the names of four children who he knew nothing about, nothing more than their names, those of their digimon, and what sort of clothing they wore. So why did they take precedence in his thoughts over anything else? Kouji realized for the first time that the only people he gave a care towards were the four whom he knew nothing about.   
  
Takuya was overly-energetic, with a normal family life and a little brother whose birthday he had missed in coming to the digital world.  
  
Tomoki was a frightened little boy trying to be brave while missed his mother, and wished he saw his older sister more.  
  
Izumi was a happy, optimistic girl who had moved home to Japan after living in Italy, and parts of the odd language had followed her home   
  
Junpei liked Izumi, and wanted to be stronger to impress her, while eating everything in sight at the same time. (That, thought Kouji, was one relationship which was going no where at all).  
  
He could string together one sentence about each of them in his thoughts, but knew nothing else. What did they fear, whom did they love (other than their parents, and in Junpei's case, Izumi), why where they here? And why was he? Of all of them, he was the most out of place. He was the one that didn't fit in with the others. Was he here to keep an eye on them? If that was the case, he wasn't doing a very good job of it.   
  
"Hey, Kouji! What do you like to eat?" Takuya's voice was pitched to be both loud, and happy. Takuya, for all his faults and impulsiveness, didn't need too much looking after. He gave out more than he took in. He was the leader, the one who made sure the others got along, and were all right.   
  
"What _are_ you rabbiting on about now, Takuya?" Kouji tried to put as much impatience and annoyance into his voice as possible. It did nothing to deter the other boy.  
  
"Talkin' about our favorite foods! What's yours?" If he had been able to, Takuya would probably have been bouncing up and down. As it was, he was seated on the ground (Kouji supposed that he had learned something after all from his earlier encounter with the low ceiling).  
  
"Sushi." Just pick a simple food and have done with it.   
  
"Colour?"  
  
"What is this, twenty questions?" He was willing to answer one stupid question, if he thought it would shut Takuya up, but he wasn't going to sit there all day and do it.  
  
"You wanna play twenty questions?"  
  
"NO!"  
  
The stranger in the cell sighed. Human children were _very_ odd.  
  
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Tomoki crept by the Devidramon, staying pushed up against the wall as he had on his previous mission into the cave. But this time, he wouldn't be coming out so soon. He had a job to do. He had to get Takuya-oniisan's digivice to him, so that Takuya-oniisan could digivolve and get Kouji-san's and his own digivice, and then _they_ could digivolve too, and together the five of them would beat Lady Devimon and the Devidramon. At least, that was what Izumi-san and Junpei-san had said. They were waiting outside to digivolve and take out that Devidramon. Tomoki wasn't so sure about this plan. Sure, getting the digivice to Takuya-oniisan, and even getting their digivices would probably be easy, but if the Devidramon had been able beat all the others to catch Takuya-oniisan, wouldn't they just do it again?  
  
He had pointed this out, but Izumi-san had said that now they would have the element of surprise, instead of the other way around, and this time they would be more motivated. Whatever that meant.   
  
Further into the dark corridor Tomoki switched sides of the wall, he wouldn't want to have to do that in the lit chamber up ahead, since the side he was now on was the side that contained the cell in which Kouji-san was. He hopped that Takuya-oniisan would be in there too, it would make things considerably simpler. The entrance to the corridor was in the beginning of the areas touched by the light of Lady Devimon's torches, and he could see her, sitting in her chair, doing something to her nails with what appeared to be a file. Fortunately, she was very occupied in this activity, and she did not notice Tomoki slip through the small lighted part of the cavern into the prison-corridor.   
  
The corridor was as dark as he remembered it being, but the last time he had been walking towards the light, so it had been easy to see where he was going (or at least, nor run into walls), but now he had no idea where anything was, and was afraid of running into the walls. He could hear, from the end of the corridor, the sound of voices.  
  
"Okay, I'm thinking of someone."  
  
"I refuse to play this childish game."  
  
"C'mon, we're kids!"  
  
"That is not an excuse."  
  
"Sure it is. I won't tell anyone."  
  
"Fine! But only because you are more annoying when I don't answer. Is it a man?"  
  
Tomoki was paying too much attention to the conversation and ended up walking smack-dab into the grate-thing and then rebounding off it to sit down hard on the ground.  
  
There was movement in the cage. Tomoki opened his eyes wide (he knew that the more light got into the eyes, the more you could see, so it wouldn't hurt to give them a little help, right?) but still saw nothing. The voice though, that he recognized.  
  
"Who's there? I'm warnin' you, we've had enough of your little visits to last a lifetime." Takuya-oniisan was obviously _not_ very happy right now.  
  
"Takuya-oniisan, it's me! Tomoki!"   
  
"Tomoki?!" The tone of voice changed immediately. "What the hell are you doing in here? Get out of here, now!" The change was perhaps not for the better.  
  
"I, I came to give you your digivice, Izumi-san and Junpei-san told me to give it to you." Here both Takuya and Kouji broke in with a few choice words about the other two older children, and Tomoki feared briefly for their safety, before remembering the part about them. "They're waiting outside to attack the Devidramon guarding the cave!" 'We're going to get out of here! Why aren't you happy, Takuya-oniisan?'  
  
"What? Tell them to get out of here! They'll be killed!"   
  
"Wait. This is your only chance for escape. You must take it. You must defeat the Devidramon, if you want to get away." Tomoki didn't recognize the voice, but there wasn't time to wonder about it.  
  
"Un! Izumi-san says you have to spirit-evolve and get Kouji-san and my digivices, and then we can evolve and beat the Devidramon and Lady Devimon!"   
  
"Takuya, you should take the digivice and get out of here. Get out of here, and take Tomoki and the other two with you. This is the stupidest plan I've ever heard, and somebody's going to get killed if you continue on with it." Kouji-san didn't sound very good. Like he had a sore throat, or something. Tomoki wasn't given time to ask though, because Takuya-oniisan broke in,  
  
"We've already had this discussion, so no. But," here, Tomoki heard him turn back towards him (Tomoki), "Tomoki, if you go back and tell the others to go, to run away and not worry about us, do you think they would?"   
  
WHAT? "WHAT?" Tomoki's mind and voice spoke together, "of course not! They would never do that! And even if they would, I wouldn't! So, don't even think about that, Takuya-oniisan! Either both of you come with me, or none of us get out!" How could Takuya-oniisan even _think_ something like that, never mind say it. He had been hanging out with Kouji-san for too long. Kouji-san was nice, but he wasn't really a 'team player'.  
  
"All right then. Tomoki, give me the digivice. Look, this is what we're going to do, because there's nothing else we can. I'm going to spirit evolve, break down this damn gate, run out of this cave like a bat out of hell, and get Lady Devimon to follow me. You, Tomoki, and you, whoever you are, are going to take advantage of her absence to steal the digivices, and the staff. Kouji is going to stay here until whoever he is gets his staff and then he is going to come back with Tomoki and heal him. Kouji and Tomoki will then evolve and come out to fight the Devidramon. By that time I'll probably be having some problems with Lady Devimon, and you're going to have to bail me out." Tomoki felt that he was missing a big part of this background to this conversation, but Takuya was plowing on ahead, "after that, the five of us will have to deal with the Devidramon. Hopefully we can take out one, and by that time Lady Devimon'll be gone, and the other one will lose initiative and leave. Got it?"   
  
Tomoki pushed the digivice throw the gate and waited until Takuya-oniisan grabbed it. When he did, it lit up almost happily, showing the area around him in a reddish light. Tomoki could see Kouji lying on the floor of the cell- what was wrong with him?- and the cape of something else, but it moved backwards out of the light before he could do more than catch a glimpse of it.   
  
"Okay, here we go. Tomoki, you had better stand away from the grate, it's going bye-bye."   
  
Tomoki moved away further down the cave and stood against the wall. As soon as Takuya evolved she'd probably hear it, so he'd have to get out of here fast before Lady Devimon came and trapped him in the corridor.  
  
"Spirit ... EVOLUTION!"  
  
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Oooo, cliffhanger! I'm sorry. Boy, this story's just moving right along, eh? Thanks to the reviewers, you're really helping on that front! :) I feel kind of bad that the problems got so out of hand that another character had to come in to save the others. *sigh*. May this be a lesson to you, don't give your characters free-reign! They dig themselves into deep problems, and then expect you to be able to fix them! But I think I got my revenge! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  
  
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"Sooo, is he alive?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"And he's not fictional?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"So, he's real, _and_ alive, then?"  
  
"Yes, that's generally what alive and not fictional is taken to mean."  
  
"And ... it's a man?"  
  
"You don't do this very often, do you Kouji?"  
  
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	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon Frontier, nor the characters. Please don't sue me.  
  
AN: If you're wondering who the mysterious digimon is, well, I ain't telling. The reason he is never introduced is that the children haven't met him yet, and if we introduced him, then they wouldn't need to be introduced to his 'brother' later on, blah blah blah. I think I've given enough blunt hints though... This story takes place somewhere between episodes 5 and 6, if anyone was wondering. Early, ne? It'd be too easy with Beast Spirits and whatnot anyway (hey, that rhymes!)   
  
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"Spirit... EVOLUTION!"   
  
When the red light disappeared from the back of the corridor, Agnimon was standing where Takuya had been a moment before. He ran straight through the metal grid as if it was nothing more than tin foil, and straight down out of the corridor, turning right and running towards the exit of the cave. Tomoki thought he saw a black shadow fly after him. The young boy shook his head and began jogging towards the end of the corridor. Finding no one there to guard it, and (after peeking around the corner) seeing Lady Devimon's throne unoccupied, he ran over to the large platform in the middle of the cave. To one side of it on the floor lay a basket, in which lay two digivices and a tall staff with a half-sun soldered onto the top. Tomoki grabbed the two digivices, his and Kouji-san's, and turned to go back. He heard the digimon who had been imprisoned with them take up his staff, but was already on his way back and didn't bother turning around to watch.  
  
The corridor was as dark as it had been before, and Tomoki found himself wishing he had remembered to bring one of the torches in to light the way, when the figure returned, his staff aglow. It lit the floor in front of him but no light shone backwards onto the bearer, and he remained in shadows. Tomoki followed the light, and the two of them found Kouji lying where they had left him, grey-faced and dirty. The light lowered itself, its master had knelt next to the boy.  
  
"Will you tell me what is wrong with you now? I have my staff, and with it the power to heal you."   
  
Kouji looked up at the dark shadow behind the light, and then at Tomoki (who, despite the fact that he was standing behind the digimon, was still illuminated), and, his face displaying his reluctance and almost disgust, motioned for the digimon to come closer. Whatever he said, Tomoki never heard, but the digimon nodded (at least, his light bobbed up and down), and he moved back slightly.   
  
"You are lucky to have survived. You would have probably done better to tell her whatever it was she wished to know. Or, perhaps not."   
  
Tomoki had the eerie feeling that the digimon had turned to look at him. But said digimon continued on, and the feeling was forgotten soon enough.  
  
"In any case, what is done is done, and perhaps the chosen children are more worthy than my brother believes. I'm sure he'll come to realize it soon enough. That sort of thing seems to run in my family." He was now speaking more to himself than either of the others, but they did not notice, for his staff had light up, casting a blinding light into the cave, so bright that Tomoki felt that the cave must burst for holding its brilliance too long. But the light faded away soon enough (though it seemed almost an eternity while it lasted), returning to the quiet candle-sized light on the top of the staff. It clearly showed Kouji sitting up, and then rising, ducking just in time to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling.   
  
The light bobbed again, this time more of a bow, stood, turned, and made its way towards the exit to the corridor. Tomoki, in the fading light, pushed Kouji's digivice into his hands, and then ran after the strange digimon, calling over his shoulder, "Hurry up, Kouji-san! Takuya-oniisan said we'd have to help him with the Devidramon!"  
  
Kouji blinked, pocketed the digivice, and ran after the smaller child.   
  
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Agnimon ran, his long, golden hair trailing behind him, and behind it ran Lady Devimon, arms outstretched, nails glinting even in the poor light, screeching. He shot out of the cave like a bullet out of a gun, and off into the woods, followed by the ever gaining Lady Devimon. The trees offered little protection, any that got in her way were chopped down immediately by her raiser sharp nails. Agnimon skidded to a stop and then sprinted off in another direction, dirt flying from under his feet. Lady Devimon hissed and flew after him. He changed direction again, digging dirt up again but this time sending it flying into her face. She wiped her face off and dropped to the earth, where she again began to pursue her escapee. Agnimon brushed branches out of his way, and then sent them flying back to strike her harshly in the face, before she ripped the offending limbs right off of their tree. The running was getting tiring, and she was beginning to gain, being both lighter and more practiced in the art of running (it wasn't that Takuya was unpracticed, it was that he wasn't as familiar with this digimon body as he was with his own). He didn't know where the others were, but he knew that they had better start getting their act together.  
  
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Izumi and Junpei watched as a flash of red practically flew past them, followed by an actually flying flash of black and grey. They stared after the two blurs for a second, before hearing the roar of the Devidramon guarding the entrance and spirit-evolving. Fairymon flew up and waited in the trees as her prey drew closer, before flinging herself out in midair in a sort of soccer tackle, sliding through the air and hitting the Devidramon feet-first, right in its blood-red eyes. It shrieked and swatted at her. Quick wing-action took her out of range of the giant claws, and a hard body-tackle from behind by Blitzmon distracted it long enough for her to launch her wind attack at a nearby tree, toppling it directly onto the huge digimon's head.   
  
The Devidramon, unbalanced from the tackle, went down under the tree and she quickly felled more of them, dropping them all onto its back and wings. Blitzmon picked up a large cedar-like tree by the end of its trunk and swung it as hard as he could, repeatedly, at the Devidramon's head. It howled under the attack, and beat its wings furiously, trying to dislodge the trees that pinned it to the ground, with limited success. For any tree that was pushed off, another two were blown on. The Devidramon soon found itself almost completely buried in upturned trees, while a digimon a quarter of its side beat it about the head with a tree. In its uncontrolled fury, it raised its tail high, before thumping it down hard enough on the ground to cause an almost mini-earthquake. It was enough to knock the two attackers off their feet, and it bought the Devidramon enough time to get its fore-legs under it and push itself up off the ground, dislodging the trees as though they were nothing more than specs of dust. Fairymon recovered herself quickly enough to get off the ground and out of the way of the rolling wall of trees, but Blitzmon was not so lucky and was carried off with them into the woods, pushed beneath their combined weight down into the dirt.  
  
The Devidramon turned, eyes glinting almost maliciously, to Fairymon.  
  
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Wolfmon and Chakmon ran out of the cave, and stopped dead to stare at the scene before them. Off away past the clearing, clouds of dust were drifting up, indicating that someone was pulling up huge amounts of dirt underfoot. The screaming that accompanied it left little doubt that Lady Devimon was one of the ones involved in that. But nearer at hand all the trees that had once grown around the cave, protecting it from unfriendly eyes, had been uprooted and tossed around, taking mounds of soil and small plants with them. A large path had been cleared, and at the end of it lay a pile of trees, sticking out from a hole in one of them was Blitzmon, hardly conscious. Before this pile stood Fairymon, and before her stood the Devidramon, staring down at her and slowly raising a large foot, clearly intending to squish her. Both Wolfmon and Chakmon ran forward, Chakmon to tackle Fairymon out of the way and Wolfmon to grab the Devidramon by its long tail, and try (in vain) to pull it back. Chakmon was successful in getting Fairymon out of danger, and Wolfmon was successful in attracting the Devidramon's attention.   
  
It turned its huge head around dully to stare at the insect hanging on to its tail, before raising its tail high into the air. Wolfmon slid down the tail before it could be driven into the ground, and up the Devidramon's back, drawing his licht seigers. The Devidramon swatted at him, but like an annoying itch, he remained on the one place on the Devidramon's back which it could not reach. So, like any itchy beast, it rolled over on the ground. Wolfmon leapt clear and perched in one of the few remaining trees, waiting for the Devidramon to discover that he was no longer on its back. It figured it out after three or four rolls, and stood up again, only to have Wolfmon leap onto its head and attempt to drive his licht seigers into its head.  
  
We say attempt because the beast promptly shook its head hard, and sent Wolfmon flying off into the forest, where he happened to crash into Agnimon, who was returning from his fight with Lady Devidramon.  
  
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A minute earlier...   
  
Agnimon, skidding to a stop once again, changed direction and speeded off. Or at least, that's what he would have liked to happen. In reality, he did stop, and turn, but at this point he caught his foot under a root and as soon as he tried to take a step his leg was pulled out from under him and he ended up lying on his stomach, more than a little stunned, as Lady Devimon fast approached. He rolled over, ignoring the pain in his ankle, and tried to start the little fire-spitter device that sat atop the back of his hand. After a couple of tries it roared to life obediently, and he pulled out a myriad of little flames and chucked them at Lady Devimon. She batted them away as if they were no more than small pebbles. Agnimon gulped. Trapped on the ground, that was the only attack he had open to him, and it was no where near strong enough to affect his opponent. Things might have gone very badly, if something had not barreled into Lady Devimon just then, and tackled her away into the trees. Agnimon pulled himself to his feet, in time only to hear the voice of the digimon from the cave tell him to go help his friends.  
  
He stared a minute longer, but the little guy had said he would take care of Lady Devimon, and the others needed him. He turned his back and ran off towards the cave.  
  
In the middle of the journey he was suddenly flattened by a very stunned Wolfmon. Agnimon lay on the ground for a moment, waiting for the other to let him up, and when he didn't, he rose himself and pushed Wolfmon off. Wolfmon rolled onto his hands and knees before standing up, shaking his head as imperceptibly as possible.  
  
"Feeling better?" It was rather a stupid question, as the answer was apparent, but there was little else to be asked.  
  
"Fine. But we have a bit of a problem." Leading the way back to the clearing the fight had made, it became clear there was more problem now then there had been when Wolfmon had ... left. The Devidramon held in its hand Fairymon, and was crushing her slowly.  
  
Agnimon, now free to use any attack he chose, powered up, and leapt into the air, flames licking about him, his speed blending them into a tornado. He broke out of it with shocking power, and landed a hard roundhouse kick on the Devidramon's snout, flames and sparks flying every which way. The Devidramon released Fairymon, who fell to the ground and de-digivolved to Izumi, who ran for the relative safety of the area which Blitzmon was struggling out of. She watched as two digimon ran into the cave in which Takuya, Kouji and Tomoki had been kept, before turning back to the battle at hand.   
  
Wolfmon had remounted to his place of before, the Devidramon's head, and now that it had been distracted by the kick, he had the time to drive his licht seigers home. Combined with Agnimon's fire attacks and Chakmon's freezing wind, it was enough to destroy the Devidramon. Agnimon scanned the code, and had just finished when they were all distracted by a scream from inside the cave, followed by a burst of light. Agnimon and Wolfmon sprinted into the cave, and Chakmon would have followed, had he not been grabbed by Izumi.  
  
"You can't go in there! The whole place's going to collapse in a minute, look!" Sure enough, the entrance (at which she was pointing) was already beginning to crumble, and rocks and dust had begun to fall from the ceiling, along with a few minor stalactites. Chakmon, distracted and tired, de-digivolved back into Tomoki, and watched with Izumi and Junpei (who had managed to finally free himself from the fallen trees but as the effort involved had exhausted him beyond the capacity to stay in his digimon form he had returned to his human one) as the cave shook from the blows being exchanged deep inside it.  
  
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Agnimon ran back into the cave, conscious of the fact that Wolfmon was running next to him but not particularly interested by it. His focus was ahead of him, in the main cavern, where the biggest fight he had ever seen was taking place. It wasn't their strength that made it such a ... _good_ fight, but the fact that the opponents were almost evenly matched, and thus rebounded off each other and continued to come back for more. Agnimon skidded to a halt at the end of the main corridor, where the hallway opened upwards and sideways to become the huge cavern in which Lady Devimon kept her throne. The throne lay in pieces on the ground, as did the platform on which it had sat, both wooden structures surrounded by dirt and wreckage. And more stalactites. The ceiling was coming down, bit by bit, another piece falling with each attack.   
  
Lady Devimon, sensing the entrance of her two once-captives, turned and sped towards them, arms outstretched, madness showing clearly on her face. The other digimon, standing behind her, shot a beam of light at the ceiling above her. It crumbled and collapsed, bringing its weight down upon her. Agnimon and Wolfmon backed away instinctively, watching as the ceiling began to crack and break apart, falling into the cavern. Agnimon moved forward, trying to run in after the digimon, but Wolfmon had grabbed hold of his back and began pulling him out.   
  
"Let go of me! I can save him! What are you doing?! He'll die! LET ME GO!!" Agnimon struggled fiercely, compulsively, against Wolfmon's grip. Wolfmon growled and gave him a good hard yank.   
  
"Open your eyes. The whole place is collapsing. There's no hope for him, and little for us. Move!"   
  
"NO! I wouldn't leave you behind, and I'm not going to leave him either!" Agnimon turned harshly and brought his arms down on Wolfmon's, breaking their hold of him, and ran back into towards collapsing cavern. The ceiling was actively falling in now, huge chunks hurtled into the ground, the impact they caused bringing down more in a chain reaction. Dust was spreading everywhere, dirtying the air, clogging eyes, ears and noses.   
  
"TAKUYA! GET BACK HERE, YOU IDIOT!" Wolfmon lunged after him.  
  
Agnimon tripped on, narrowly avoiding a large plummeting boulder. With all the dust, he could hardly see his hand in front of his face. There was no way he would be able to find their rescuer by sight, and with the sounds of the cave collapsing blocking almost all other sound, that was his only option. He stumbled forwards, tripped over a piece of rubble, and ended up flat on his face for the second time in a half-hour. He rolled over quickly, only to watch as a stalactite fell from directly above him, its sharp tip aiming for his heart. A staff flew through the air from behind him, striking the stalactite in its center and shattering it into harmless small stones. Agnimon pulled himself to his feet, and squinted in the direction it had come from. He thought he saw the outline of a small digimon with a pointed head, and a round body, but in the dust it was so hard to tell...  
  
"Do as your friend tells you and go! There's no way for me to escape, don't bother with it. My downfall is my own fault, and of my own choosing. I will not be responsible for your deaths! GO!" Had he still possessed his staff, he surely would have thrown it at the foolish boy, the child in a digimon's body. 'Brother, I am sure you will come to see them as I do now, the true saviors of our world. These children are worth any sacrifice. As they always have been in our past.' The ceiling over his head gave out, large boulders falling down upon him.  
  
Agnimon stumbled backwards, unsure of what to do. Wolfmon grabbed his arm and in his confusion he blindly followed the other digimon as they staggered back the way they had come. As they entered the hallway, the cavern gave an almighty crash and collapsed, a wall of dust and debris flying out into the hall, driving both digimon to their hands and knees. The roof began to crack and crumble. Agnimon de-digivolved, followed shortly by Wolfmon, and the two children found themselves kneeling, hardly able to breath, in the collapsing cave system.   
  
Both staggered to their feet, and Kouji began to run, before he realized that he had left Takuya behind. Running back, he found him staring, unfazed by the destruction taking place around him, at the buried cavern.  
  
"Takuya! So help me, if you don't start running, I'm going to knock you out and _carry_ you out of this cave. Run, damn you!" He shoved Takuya from behind, and a large piece of ceiling fell and landed right where he had been standing. That got Takuya's attention, and, pulling his goggles on, he made a run for the exit, Kouji close behind. They passed by a large corridor in which the second Devidramon was trying to dig its way out past the rubble already blocking the exit to its hallway. It was too late though, and a second later the ceiling of that offshoot fell in, burying it forever.  
  
Takuya took a large breath, intending to hold it so as not to have to breath in any more of the dust-filled air, but found that it was already so dust-filled it was suffocating, and promptly began to cough and hack as he ran. The ceiling, having had it with falling in installments, had decided to go out with a bang. The whole lot began to fall, walls, ceiling, doorways and everything. The two children put on a final burst of speed, and, when they had no more time to run, threw themselves forwards.  
  
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Izumi, Tomoki, Junpei, Bokomon and Neemon (who had been hiding in the forest during the battle, and had now appeared to await Takuya's return) watched as dust streamed out of the cavern, and listened in horror to the sounds of rocks falling, of things collapsing. The wide mouth of the cave was cracking, and small rocks rained down, leaving room for the larger ones to fall down after them, which they did.  
  
After a few minutes of waiting, the entire cave seemed to shudder, and began to collapse in earnest, starting from the back and falling in, becoming in a few seconds no more than a flat pile of rocks. Izumi tightened her hold on Tomoki, and Neemon latched onto Bokomon, trying to hide behind the shorter digimon.  
  
Dust flew out in a huge cloud, as if it had been blown out by an enormous fan, and then the end of the cave, the entrance, fell to the ground.  
  
The rocks shifted in their new places, sediment falling this way and that, dust settling onto the rocks. The children stared at the rocks before them. Tomoki pulled himself out of Izumi's grip and ran forward, digging through the rocks, pushing them this way and that, looking for some sign of either of the two digimon that had gone running into the cave. He was joined a few seconds later by Izumi, who was followed immediately by Junpei. Even as she dug though, Izumi's brain was already calculating the odds that they would be able to find their friends. Slim to none.  
  
"Tomoki, I know you, we, want to find them but, you have to face the fact that ... there's no reason to think that they even got this far. They might be buried anywhere under here and, and," she paused for a second, "we might never find them." She took a breath, and steeled her heart against Tomoki's large eyes. "Th, this cave is just so big that the chances of us finding them are, are, not very good." She ended lamely, unable to tell him directly to his face that she thought it quite likely the boy he considered his brother was dead.  
  
"You're wrong! They're okay! I know they are! They have to be." This last sentence was finished as a whisper, more of a thought, a wish, than an argument. Izumi looked away, whether it was because she didn't want to see Tomoki crying, or because she didn't want him to see her doing the same was unclear.  
  
A movement in the rubble, followed by a cough, drew everyone's attention back to the rock pile. Some of the pebbles and dust began to shift, as if someone was pushing at it from underneath. As the three children and two digimon looked on, and hand appeared, a most definitely human hand, followed by an arm, followed by ...  
  
"Takuya-oniisan!" Tomoki leapt forwards, scrambling over the loose shale to help the older boy dig himself out of the rocks. Takuya, completely covered in light brown dust, began to dig around his right side, where from Kouji emerged a minute later, coughing and trying to wipe dust out of his eyes at the same time.   
  
They were dug out by five eager helpers, and pulled away from the rubble, away from the dust, and the despair.   
  
A few minutes after they had all scrambled off of the remainder of the cave, three glowing digi-eggs pushed their way to the surface, and floated away, off to start a new and hopefully better life.  
  
Takuya stared after them remorsefully, looking more to one than either of the other two.  
  
"You can't always save the world, Takuya. Sometimes the world has to save you, and pay the price." Kouji walked past him, without even a turn of the head. Anything either of them owed the other had been paid off. In seconds he had disappeared into the thick forest.  
  
The others stared after him for a moment, before turning back to Takuya, and the collapsed cave.  
  
"Well?" Izumi pressed.  
  
"Nothing. It's ... nothing. Let's go." He led the way, as always, walking away from the pile of ruins, the opposite way from that which Kouji had taken. They would always meet again, that was clear enough now. Wherever they were being led in this world, they were meant to get there together. And, when the time came, Takuya didn't think he would mind it that much.  
  
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In the crystal chambers of Lord Seraphimon, the chambers that were both his home, and his prison, a lone digimon stood watch, sworn to protect his master until the end of eternity, or until either of them fell. A few hours ago he had had a brother, charged with the same mission. But he was gone now, and the watch had become lonelier still.  
  
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End. 


End file.
